Vietnam

I'm scrambling to catch up with my blogging. We just left China, and I'm taking some time to reflect on Vietnam. Vietnam was fascinating but challenged me in some difficult ways.

Like most Americans, Vietnam is strongly tied in my mind to war. I think that comes mostly from being raised by the generation who was directly affected. In the pre-port lecture before we arrived, one of our teachers broke into tears as she read an interview with a Vietnamese girl who described some of the horrors of the war. When she was finished, the interport lecturer from Vietnam came up to the mic to respond, and he cried too. He offered these words of comfort: “We cannot change our history, but we can change our attitude.” He went on to say that present day Vietnamese people are very welcoming of Americans because of our friendly economic relations, and also because much of the population was born after the war and doesn't have any memory of it. He was right, I suppose. We received a warm welcome everywhere we went. One student mentioned to me that it also helped that we were in South Vietnam, in the regions that the US troops were allied with during the war.

Despite the friendliness from the Vietnamese people, I struggled with some really painful and conflicting emotions while we were in port. I can't help but associate Vietnam's natural forest landscape with images of war and destruction. I tried really hard to appreciate its beauty but I don't think I was there for long enough to really separate those feelings.

On our first day in the country, a lot of us visited the War Remnants Museum. It tells the story of the Vietnam War (known as the “American War” to the Vietnamese) from Vietnam's perspective. There's obviously some horrific and terrifying stories to be told. Most of the museum featured photography and articles from the war time. One photo of Vietnamese prisoners was accompanied by a recounting of the American photographer. He described how he came across a group of prisoners that was about to be executed. He shouted to the soldiers to wait so he could take the photo. After he snapped the photo and walked away, he heard the guns fire and saw their bodies fall out of the corner of his eye, but he didn't turn to look.

I also remember a letter from Ho Chi Minh to the American people. He thanked the American citizens that opposed and protested the. He said that America was hurting itself just as much as Vietnam, and stated that Vietnam's goal was to keep peace and simply provide for its people.

There were some terrible photographs and specimens of people who were affected and deformed by Agent Orange and the other chemical weapons. They also had recreations of instruments of torture, and a Vietnamese man showed his young kid (maybe 5 years old) how they worked, which shocked me.

At the end of the museum, they had a gallery full of artwork by young kids, showing their interpretations of peace and love, and that provided a little bit of solace. There was also a guestbook of sorts, which included a lot of strongly anti-American sentiments from international visitors. I noticed that very few Americans wrote in the book, and I wanted to put something down that would have been both sensitive and supportive, but also stand up for my country and culture and show that we're not all violent and ignorant. I really couldn't think of a way to do that after being exposed to such horrific things that were done in the name of my country. It's something I'm still struggling with.

My experiences of daily life in Ho Chi Minh City were a lot less intense. The city (formerly called Saigon) is really modern and comfortable for us. Almost all the traffic is made up of motorcycles, and crossing the street was always thrilling. The stream of traffic is pretty much constant so you just work up the nerve and step out into the street. As long as you keep up a steady pace, the motorcycles will kind of part ways like water around a stick and you make it to the other side shaken but safe.

A big tourist attraction in Vietnam is the Cu Chi tunnels, which are a network of underground tunnels that the Viet Kong used for guerilla warfare against the French and Americans during their respective wars. It's mindblowing. The tunnels are barely wide enough to move in, and soldiers spent up to 24 continuous hours underground. Besides their strategic uses, the Vietnamese troops used the tunnels to instill paranoia and psychological havoc on their enemies. American troops would describe setting down a can of coke, turning away for a moment, and having it disappear before they could turn back around. The Viet Kong were nicknamed “Night Ghosts” or “Night Rats” because of their stealth and omniscience. We got the chance to crawl through a couple of the tunnels that had been widened. One was pitch black and bats fluttered by my head as I crawled through.

Jonathan and I had an overnight trip to the Mekong Delta. It was very cool and included a couple of lengthy boat trips along the waterways. They're busy and used as a main type of transportation for merchants. We visited a floating market, which is basically a gigantic huddle of boats and people exchange fruits and crafts. They maneuver deftly and we all cringed as they swung around turns and missed other boats by centimeters. Each boat has eyes painted on the front to scare away crocodiles. We also visited a facility that cooked and prepared popped rice snacks, which is a complex process that is hard to describe but fascinating.

On the last day, a few of us visited a school for the blind. We got to interact with elementary school-aged kids. It was difficult to overcome the communication barrier, because I've usually relied on gestures and miming to communicate with the kids in countries so far. We found that music was a good way to break down the barriers, so we traded songs and improvised by drumming and kazooing.

Vietnam was definitely thought-provoking. I wish it didn't have to be so painful. I'm even conflicted about whether it should have been painful. Is it appropriate for me to feel guilty? I know that I'll keep on thinking about the country and all these issues for a long time. There was no real closure or breakthrough that left me feeling completely satisfied or comfortable with my time there. I'll just keep on trying to come up with some answers or conclusions. That's really all there is to say.


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We reach Japan the day after tomorrow. I'll post about my time in China as soon as I can. Thanks for reading and staying in touch.